Meet Pene

My Story

Penelope Turnell is a specialist child protection consultant with over 20 years of international experience, working in both government and non government agencies from remote Australia, to villages in Cambodia, all through Ireland, in many local authorities in England, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada. 

Penelope has a lived experience of domestic abuse and has channelled this experience alongside her professional skills, academic and field based qualifications and trainings to develop a guidance for assessing danger/ safety and for planning to increase safety for adult and child victim survivors, while holding to account those who choose to use violence.

Penelope’s work helps practitioners cut through the complexity of child protection – both individual cases and system issues - with clear, evidence-based analysis that balances danger and harm with strengths and existing safeties. Grounded in contemporary ‘real life’ practice, Penelope leads teams in the application of principles that centre connection, belonging, and action-based safety planning, bringing empathic curiosity compassion and risk intelligence to all her work. 

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Penelope works part-time with a non-government Aboriginal organisation as a therapeutic practice specialist whilst consulting and training both online and face to face, grounding all her work in the everyday realities of child protection practitioners and leaders, and, most importantly the children and families whose lives are irreversibly impacted by the work done by professionals in their lives. 

In the words of Racheal Nicholas “Social Workers have the power to shift or shatter”

Penelope uses her skills to help practitioners work in systems that shift, not shatter. ​